The invention relates to a filling system for filling powder into a container to be sealed, comprising a metering device for metering a partial quantity of powder for filling, at least one compaction element for the powder, and at least one container, wherein, relative to the direction of gravity, the at least one compaction element is arranged below the metering device, wherein the at least one compaction element can be lowered from above into the container for the filling step, wherein the at least one compaction element is embodied as a shaking element with a shaking drive and wherein the shaking element at least partially projects from above into the container during the filling step. The invention also concerns a method for filling powder into a container to be sealed by means of the filling system.
Certain powders such as laundry detergents are produced as loose bulk material and are then metered by means of a metering device to predetermined partial quantities. The metered partial quantities are subsequently filled into a target container. Such target containers can be film packages of water-soluble film that contain an individual dosage of the powder for future use by the consumer. Such individually metered packages that are packaged in water-soluble film are designed to be placed into a washing machine. Upon contact with washing water, the film package dissolves and releases the predetermined quantity of laundry powder.
In such and in similar applications, it is important to keep the target container for receiving a certain metered quantity at a certain size that is not larger than necessary and to fill it to the brim. This is difficult to realize in practice. The metering device is usually positioned above the upwardly opened target container so that the metered quantity of powder, due to gravity (gravity feed), drops into the open target container to be sealed later on. As this happens, a loose conical heap of the bulk material is produced that may not surpass a certain height. Inasmuch as the height of the bulk material cone is kept low, the target container cannot be filled to the brim. When the bulk material cone is higher and projects upwardly past the plane of the sealing surface of the container, the subsequent sealing process is at risk. The bulk material cone is then an obstacle for application of the cover film that is to be sealed onto the container. Powder may come into contact with the sealing surface which impairs the quality of the seal to be produced. A complete utilization of the container volume is therefore not possible.